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restructure the debt. The State of North Dakota intervened,
urging delay of the foreclosure sale and citing adverse economic
impacts from closing the plant.
By order dated May 8, 1986, the District Court denied the
partnership’s motion for a period of equitable redemption,
concluding that it lacked authority to grant such relief where
the order of foreclosure had already been entered. The District
Court also noted that the partnership and the partners “talk of
‘redemption’, but it is apparent that ‘re-negotiation’ would be a
more accurate description”. Nevertheless, the District Court
postponed the foreclosure sale date from May 28 to June 30, 1986,
to permit the notice of sale to be republished with corrected
property descriptions.
The June 30, 1986, Foreclosure Sale
On June 30, 1986, the foreclosure sale was held. The lone
bidder was DOE, which bid $1 billion for the partnership’s
mortgaged assets.19 The U.S. Marshal filed with the District
Court a Marshal’s Return and Report of Sale and a Certificate
19 As discussed in more detail infra, certain assets
necessary for operating the project were not among the
partnership’s mortgaged assets but were instead owned by ANG (the
subsidiary of ANRC, which also owned ANR, a general partner in
the partnership). As a precondition for the loan guarantee
agreement, DOE had required ANRC to pledge as security all its
ANG stock. Petitioner asserts, and respondent does not dispute,
that DOE purposefully bid less than the full amount of the $1.57
billion debt, intending subsequently to use the balance of the
debt to obtain the ANG stock.
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